By Jonty Ralphsmith
It’s happening.
All season, Pakenham and Keysborough have seemed the dominant teams of the Big V Youth League Division Two competition – and now the arch rivals will face off in a grand final series.
“The players have played against each other for a long time so there’s always a bit of fun and extra feeling,” Pakenham coach Braden Venning said.
“We always have some really good games throughout the year.”
Pakenham was on top of its semi-final from the get-go against Sunbury on the weekend, finishing the first quarter with a bang to go into the first break ahead 23-12.
Those two minutes proved telling in the contest, with Sunbury never seriously able to threaten to pull the lead in at a packed Cardinia Life on Saturday night.
Nullifying Sunbury’s size was addressed heading into the game and coach Venning said his team did that well.
“Our defence was outstanding – to keep them to 52 points in an entire game was huge,” Venning said.
“We held them to 28 per cent shooting for the game and 19 per cent at the half and we took their leading scorer completely out of the game – Dylan (Jenkinson) gave him absolutely nothing.
Perhaps most pleasingly, the Warriors still put a score on the board despite Michael Johns scoring just seven points – there was an even spread of contributors.
Hayden Melsen hit three three-pointers and stretched the floor well, finishing with 22 points and eight rebounds.
“Whenever they had their big fella out there, we took him away from the ring and when he didn’t come, Hayden was hitting threes so it was good to get the advantage there.
Keysborough, meanwhile, had a 45-point win over Whittlesea, the margin thanks in large part to a 40-15 final term.
Eleven players got court time in front of their home crowd.
Venning understands the gravity of the clash and is close with Keysborough coach Simon Phillips.
“It’s going to be an absolute battle,” Venning said.
“We know their advantage is in the post so they’re going to push it inside and see what we can do about it.
“Their guards are fantastic defenders that will look to pressure our ball handlers but the maturity in our group will look to get us through anything they throw at us and it will come down to who’s shooting well.”
When Pakenham and Keysy clashed in the home and away fixture, Keysborough won by four points.
Keysy’s threats are ex-NBL 1 player Riley Simmons, who scored 21 points to go with nine rebounds that night, point-guard Bowen Mahon and Dylan Moore, who has a high three-point shooting percentage and got 13 rebounds last weekend.
The sides’ first clash will be at Cardinia Life on Saturday night at 6pm before the second – and third, if required – will be played the following week at Keysborough’s home stadium.
